Dave Hagen, Director of Fort Lewis College cycling program

Dave Hagen has been the Director of the Fort Lewis College cycling program for 18 years. In that time, he’s seen it grow from a club sport to one of the most dominant collegiate teams in the country. He’s helped guide the careers of future pros such as Sarah Sturm, Sepp Kuss, Chris Blevins, and Sofia Gomez-Villafañe, and watched the team secure 15 USA Cycling Collegiate national titles in mountain biking and cyclocross. But under his leadership, the program has focused just as much attention on amateur cycling enthusiasts as future Olympians and World Champions.

In this conversation, Dave talks to Payson about fostering an inclusive culture within the team, which welcomes about forty freshmen each year. He explains why he’s glad that cycling is not an NCAA sport, and how he’d like to see collegiate racing change. He also talks about the influence of FLC cycling colleague and former downhill champion Elke Brutsaert, and discusses his own racing career for Yeti in the early 90s.